


Justice Leage/Static Shock crossover: Tough

by dotfic



Category: DCU Animated, Static Shock
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-02-06
Updated: 2005-02-06
Packaged: 2017-10-11 05:38:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/108988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dotfic/pseuds/dotfic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Missing Scene from "A League of Their Own, Part 2"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Justice Leage/Static Shock crossover: Tough

Tough  
A Static Shock/Justice League crossover

Disclaimer: Static Shock is the property of Milestone/DC Comics/Warner Bros. Justice League is the property of DC Comics/Warner Bros. They're all in the same universe now, anyway.  
Summary: Missing Scene from "A League of Their Own, Part 2"  
Rating: PG  
Many many thanks to mtgat for the beta read.  
First posted to LJ: 2/6/2005

 

When they landed at the gas station, Richie was still unconscious, his head lolling against Hawkgirl's shoulder. The bird-chick frightened Virgil, even though she was small and was a real looker. She reminded him a little of Talon, except Hawkgirl was a hundred times as frightening. Talon couldn't fight worth a damn.

The scary, scary bird-chick with the mace was holding his best friend, who was out cold after getting his body and mind taken over by a megalomaniacal being named Brainiac, and Virgil didn't feel like Static "I'll give you a shock to your system" at the moment. He felt like Virgil Hawkins having a very, very bad day.

Without a word, Flash opened the door for Hawkgirl, who carried her burden into the gas station and deposited Gear onto the counter. Virgil pushed past Batman to get inside next, not caring particularly that he'd gone over a line even Superman would hesitate to cross.

"Why isn't he awake yet?" Virgil peered down anxiously through the visor into Gear's still face.

J'onn gracefully appeared on the other side of the counter. "He's in mental as well as physical shock. The latter is easily treatable. The first...it will take time. I can help him."

Virgil gripped the edges of the counter with his gloves. He felt as if he'd turned one of his own jolts onto himself. Shaky. "Then help him! What are you waiting for?"

"Static, calm down," Batman ordered.

He could feel the sparks tingling in his fingertips as he turned around. "Don't tell me what to do. I'm not Robin."

"Static..." Green Lantern began, and then fell silent, as if he had thought of something to say, but reconsidered. Virgil noticed Flash was edging himself closer to them, the look on his face familiar. Virgil had seen it half a dozen times, watching the gangs hang out--when a stupid argument got out of hand, there was always one member, not as mean or big as the rest, who tried to break it up.

Peripherally, he was aware that J'onn was doing something to Richie, taking his limp wrist to check his pulse. Static forgot about Green Lantern and watched.

He couldn't see anything unusual happen. Richie didn't so much as twitch.

"What's he doing?" Virgil asked, a crack in his voice.

"He'll bring him back. Don't worry." Hawkgirl's voice was hard but strong, level.

"Sure, buddy, he's gonna be fine." Green Lantern rested a big hand on Virgil's shoulder.

"Green guy's right." Flash pointed with his thumb at Green Lantern, trying to look cool and doing a bad job of it.

Batman remained silent. Virgil suddenly got what inspired Robin to follow him so devoutly.

"Can't count the number of times J'onn's had to patch one of us up," Green Lantern continued. "Everything's going to be..."

"'Don't worry.' 'He's gonna be fine.' 'Everything's going to be okay.'" He wrenched his shoulder away from Green Lantern's touch. "That's nice. I'm glad you're so concerned, because if you had let me come with you in the first place, this might not have happened. We might have gotten to R...Gear sooner and he might not be Coma Boy now! But okay, sure, I understand, there were bigger stakes here than one teenager's life."

He heard Green Lantern's sharp intake of breath, and told himself he didn't care.

As if things weren't bad enough, Virgil felt the warning signs of the ultimate humiliation swelling in his throat.

There was no way--no freakin' way--he was going to cry in front of the Justice League. The only way out was to act tough, something Virgil wasn't good at. His way of getting out of having the crap kicked out of him was to crack a joke, offer to talk it out. So he fisted up his hands, turned on his heel, and stalked out, banging the door loudly behind him. He hoped his coat flapped behind him as dramatically as Batman's cape.

He didn't go far--he wanted to be nearby if...no, when. When. Richie woke up. Virgil made it around to the back of the gas station before the first angry sob broke from him. He choked the next down, raised his hands, and sent two metal garbage cans flying against the wall.

They made a satisfying, angry crash.

"Those waste receptacles will never bother anyone again," Flash said behind him, in mock stentorian tones.

Virgil sagged his back against the wall and slid down until he was sitting on the ground, heedless of broken glass and other debris. A determined, scrubby plant of unidentifiable origin was attempting to climb the broken chain link fence.

He deliberately did not look at Flash, so all he could see of the superhero were his red leg coverings. Did the guy wear sneakers under there or what?

Flash perched himself on a rusty oil drum turned on its side, nearby and right across from Virgil, so he had to look at him unless he actually closed his eyes.

"I'm sorry for that, back there." Flash dug his toe into the dirt, just testing the ground. Virgil noticed he was never still, not for a second. He was a fidgeter. Like himself. "We were..." he cleared his throat. "I never wanted to be the kind of guy who would condescend to kids. You know? Pat 'em on the head, tell them everything was just fine, lie to them...been on the receiving end of that too much myself, growing up."

He tilted his head to one side, looking at Virgil. "You're not much of a kid, really. You did this on your own." He waved his hand, indicating Virgil's costume.

"No. I did it with Gear's help," Virgil said coldly.

"Right. Sorry. No, what I meant was, you did it without a mentor training you. Gear doesn't know any more than you do about how to do this. *I* had no idea how to do this, but I have *them*. I've got GL busting my ass if I'm too lazy and don't train, I've got Batman telling me where to shove it--not that he uses that many words--if I open my big mouth too much, Hawkgirl taking me down a peg or too when I deserve it and sometimes when I don't...not to mention J'onn and the Superdude and WW, who are nicer to me than the others." He paused. "They don't teach me as much."

Virgil knew he shouldn't backtalk the Flash. Not because he was the Flash, but the guy was being reasonable and sincerely apologetic. He picked up a small rock threw it aimlessly at the chain link fence. It bounced off and was lost among the broken concrete and grass.

"Thanks for the pep talk," he said sarcastically.

Flash got tired of digging little holes in the dirt with his toes and started tapping his fingers against the drum instead.

Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom.

"Will you cut that out?" Virgil shouted.

Silence, broken only by the sounds of distant traffic and the muffled thump of rap music from a car with a killer sound system.

"They do care."

The thumps got louder, then died away as the car got a green light and roared off.

Again, silence.

"We say things like that because sometimes--and you know I'm not exaggerating--if we make the wrong decision the world comes to an end." He sawed the air once with his hand. "Literally."

"I get it, sure. They didn't let me go to help Gear in the first place because I'm just a kid hero and I might screw up and the world would end. Gee, Flash, I feel so much better!" Virgil got to his feet.

"No." Flash blocked his path before Virgil could stalk off. "It's because it's possible to have your priorities in the right place and the wrong place at the same time."

"Huh?"

"Let's just say, everyone in that gas station knows exactly how scared you are right now. But the world comes first."

"But..."

"Which would you choose?" Flash jabbed his finger against Virgil's chest, right into the middle of the yellow lightning. "What if you were wrong? What if your powers didn't short out the control disk? What if Brainiac had won? What if he took over the world?"

"But I wasn't. And they did. And he lost."

"But what if? What if the only way to stop it was for your friend to be lying in there unconscious right now?"

Virgil backed up a step. "We're not talking a hypothetical."

"Throw a tantrum. Shove Batman--oh, don't think I didn't notice that, do you have a death wish? Yell at Green Lantern, kick things. Tug on some capes if it makes you feel better. But I just want you to be clear, for the record: We care. So much that it's hard to breathe sometimes. But we can't have a tantrum and we can't kick things because if we do, who's gonna save the world?"

Virgil went over to the fence and hooked his fingers through the links, hanging on as if it was the only thing holding him up.

"Come back in when you're ready. I think Bats will let it go. This time."

He heard Flash leave--or rather, felt it, a little rush of wind, dirty newspapers swirling upwards and settling. Staring through the fence at the back lots and buildings of downtown Dakota, Virgil wished, not for the first time, that he'd never gotten his powers. For each time he'd had that wish, there were hundreds of times when the rush was incredible, when he felt like the luckiest kid in the universe.

It was over. Not being Static. He knew now he'd never be able to stop. The rush part.

It would never be just about the rush, ever again.

Virgil pushed himself off the fence, walked around the side of the gas station, and went back inside.

THE END


End file.
